Aid Workers Archives

08/01/202316/02/2023

1, 000 bikes for girls’ education and young women’s leadership in Malawi

As part of my bicycles-for-girls-education PhD, I am always on the look out for inspiring projects where bicycles create change. This week, I came across a join venture between CAMFED and The Clara Lionel Foundation from a few years ago. Enjoy! NG.

CAMFED and The Clara Lionel Foundation delivered over 1,000 bicycles to girls and young women in the Salima District of Malawi.

These bicycles are part of a comprehensive aid program offered to high school students, with the potential to revolutionize the opportunities for girls who confront up to 10km (6 miles) commutes to and from school.

The success and longevity of this initiative will depend on the CAMFED Association (CAMA) network, as they acquire proficiency in entrepreneurship, bike upkeep, and repair skills.

The collaboration between CAMFED and the Clara Lionel Foundation is facilitating the continuation of secondary education for 7,500 Malawian girls, a crucial effort considering the low 30% enrollment rate of females in secondary school due to insufficient facilities and long distances.

These bicycles has generated a lot of attention in rural communities where girls often face challenges commuting to school, such as exhaustion and hunger from walking and attending to household duties. The bicycles provide a pathway for academic success in rural areas.

This programme is part of a wider and multifaceted strategy to remove obstacles to girls’ education, which also includes paying for school fees, peer mentoring, supplying necessities like sanitary pads, and bridging huge distances from home to school.

The Malawian alumni of CAMFED programmes are essential to bringing about change for the next generation of females. CAMA members serve as mentors and role models in rural areas where there are few female teachers and professionals. So far alumni have helped 20,000 females pursue education in just five years.

See more on this project here.

THE CLARA LIONEL FOUNDATION

The Clara Lionel Foundation is a non-governmental organization founded by the singer and entrepreneur Rihanna in 2012. The foundation aims to support and fund education, health, and emergency response programs around the world. It prioritizes initiatives that promote education and provide access to healthcare in impoverished communities, particularly for girls and women. The foundation also works towards disaster relief and climate change resilience. The foundation partners with local organizations to achieve its goals and has provided significant support to countries in the Caribbean, Africa, and the United States.

CAMFED

CAMFED (Campaign for Female Education) is a non-governmental organization that aims to eradicate poverty and improve the educational opportunities of girls in sub-Saharan Africa by supporting them through primary and secondary school and into adulthood. The organization provides assistance with school fees, mentorship, and life skills training to ensure that girls are able to complete their education and become confident and economically independent leaders in their communities. Since its founding in 1993, CAMFED has helped over 4 million students in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania, and Malawi.

17/05/202121/07/2021

Myanmar: Less Walk – Excess global bike share surplus get kids to school

Myanmar: Walk Less - Excess global bike share surplus get kids to school. Bicycles Create Change.com. 17th May 2021.

An inspiring good news story from Myanmar where bicycles really are creating more positive social and environmental change!

Recently, I came across an article written by Phoe Wah in The Myanmar Times detailing a local tech entrepreneur’s social enterprise which uses global bike-sharing surplus to get more rural Myanmar kids to school.

Fantastic!

For more: see the Less Walk website for more and the Less Walk YouTube channel here.

Here is an overview of that the project below*.

Like many young students across Myanmar, Saw, Suu Lel had to walk for miles to reach school from his small Kayin village. Every morning he would wake at 5 am to make it to his morning class, and would only return at dusk after walking for another hour to get home. The long commute was an added source of stress for the young scholar as it took time away from his homework. Coming from a poor family, Saw, Suu Lel also wished to help his parents but the distance is too great to reach their workplace by foot. However, Saw, Suu Lel tedious routine or changed overnight. Like the other students in the village, he received a brand-new bicycle.

“I’m really happy about having an Obike (a former model of the bike-sharing company). I’ve never owned one“ said the seventh grader.

Since the day the bikes arrived, the morning streets in the village look very different. A line of yellow bikes, written by delighted students, makes its way through the main streets towards the school.

Mike Than Tun, the founder of the Myanmar technology company BOD Tech Venture is behind this goodwill gesture. Aside from investing in tech projects around the country, the 33-year-old businessman doubles as a philanthropist. His main area of interest is education.

“Education is the best way to alleviate poverty” is Mike Than Tun’s mantra. The bikes are aimed at giving school children a more efficient and fun way to get to school. According to Mike, many students drop out of school because when they move to middle and high school the schools are very far away from the villages with some walking up to 2 hours in the early morning. When it rains, walking times can be extended even further.

“Less walking will help the student save 80% of their travel time. We believe having Bikes will improve absenteeism and overall lateness giving more time for students to study and allow them to focus in class. It’s also safer for female students as I can reach home before dark,” said Mike Than Tun.

Having lived for nearly 18 years in Singapore, Mike Than Tun realized the extent of the problem during his travels to rural Myanmar. On his travels across the countryside, he remembered seeing lines of young students walking long distances to school. He realized that many families could not afford a bicycle and seeing a school bus was a rarity.

Myanmar imports large quantities of used bicycles from Thailand and Japan which can provide much-needed form of cheap transportation for some people. Despite the secondhand imports, many families still can’t afford a used bicycle.

His idea first took shape in 2018 when the Chinese bike-sharing provider Obike announce bankruptcy and their companies Ofo and Mobike withdrew from the Southeast Asia market. This left plenty of spare bicycles abandoned, available for scrap dealers or recycling plants.

“It is extremely heartbreaking to see the amount of money and resources wasted white sharing companies that all ended up at scrap. A new bicycle is estimated to cost between USD$ 150-200 to manufacture now all ends up as a huge social and public nuisance. It’s sad that rich nations might not know how to treasure such a simple necessity. But for people in need, it can make a huge impact and even be life-changing,” said Tun.

Through his initiative Less Walk.com, the philanthropist buys and imports the obsolete bike-sharing bicycles into Myanmar at a fraction of the original cost and distributes them for free to students living below the poverty line. Students who benefit the most typically walk over two kilometres a day and are enrolled in grade 6 – 10. Since last June, the Less Walk project has already imported 10,000 brand-new Obikes.

“We will modify the bicycles to add a seat in the back so that siblings can ride to school. We will also remove the digital lock and replace it with a regular lock for the students” Mike added.

So far, Mike’s charity has already helped students in Sagaing, Yangong, Mon and Thanithariyi regions and the founder intends to cover other places in Myanmar in the future. Words of his good deeds have travelled as far as America, Netherlands, Japan and China where people started to donate bikes to his project.

Mike hopes to expand the program from 10,000 bikes to 100,000 bikes in two years.

“We want to raise awareness that the circular economy is possible and one man’s problems can be another man’s opportunity” he said.

*Main content and all images sourced from Phoe Wah’s article and Less Walk. Some content is edited.

14/04/202111/06/2021

ICQI 2021 Accepted! Velo-onto-epistemology: Becoming(s)-with Bicycles, Gender, Education and Research

ICQI 2021: Collaborative Futures in Qualitative Inquiry

ICQI…..you know….only the largest ……. and most respected qualitative research conference IN THE WORLD! … and with all the biggest names!

My PhD supervisor said I should consider submitting an abstract for this conference.

Doing so is a VERY BIG DEAL – this congress is the pinnacle in my field. I’ve never presented at this conference.

For the first time ever, the ICQI 2021 will be held online. This is a super attractive feature for me as it will mean if I get an abstract accepted to present, I wouldn’t have to spend the extra money to travel to the USA as was required for all previous (and probably subsequent) ICQIs. If I ever wanted to give ICQI a solid shot – this is it!

So I did – and my abstract got accepted! Woohoo!

My ICQI 2021 Abstract

Velo-onto-epistemology: Becoming(s)-with Bicycles, Gender, Education and Research.
This paper traces some experimental and experiential wonderings of researching gendered journeys on bicycles in West Africa. This session shares what is unfolding for one rider-researcher as she works to excavate the entanglements, tensions and possibilities of becoming(s)-with post-qualitative inquiry that foregrounds African landscapes, smells, desires, dynamics, beliefs, practices and peoples with emerging feminist posthuman ontologies. My research puts to work feminist New Materialisms to explore how bicycles feature in West African girls’ access to secondary education. This undertaking is bold, complex and unsettling. It requires (re)turning (Barad, 2006) and challenging habitual preoccupations about bicycles, embodiment, movement, identity, ecology, sp/pl/p/ace and methodology. There is much about gendered bodies navigating trails that commands attention, yet defies explanation (McLure, 2013). Drawing on key encounters experienced in Brisbane (Australia) and Lunsar (Sierra Leone), I trace the skills, wills, spills and thrills from which a velo-onto-epistemology is emerging.

Below are some ICQI 2021 details to get a sense of what’s on offer.

The 2021 Congress theme is: Collaborative Futures in Qualitative Inquiry.

The rapidly changing social, cultural, political, economic, and technological dynamics brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic are inescapable as we endeavor to move forward. The pandemic has also amplified hard truths about everyday life: the ongoing historical devaluation of teachers, nurses, and service workers, and the precarity of the working classes, the unyielding privileging of business and the free market as the answer to all social and health ills, the differential experience of the virus relative to race, class, and gender dynamics, including as related to co-morbidity and mortality rates, access to care, and visibility, the rise of right-wing populism and its deleterious impact on positive governmental responses to pandemic conditions, the prominence of conspiracy theories in mainstream and social media discourse (e.g., masks don’t help, virus is man-made, etc.).

At the same time, we cannot overlook the broader context in which the 2021 Congress will take place: Black Lives Matter, #MeToo creeping authoritarianism, environmental crises, economic shocks to higher education and continuing public health crises.

Collectively and collaboratively, this moment calls for a critical, performative, social justice inquiry directed at the multiple crises of our historical present.

We need a rethinking of where we have been, and, critically, where we are going.

We cannot go at it alone.

We need to imagine new ways to collaborate, to engage in research and activism. New ways of representing and intervening into the historical present. New ways to conduct research, and a rethinking of in whose interest our research benefits.

Sessions in the 2021 Congress will take up these topics, as well as those related to and/or utilizing:

feminist inquiry
Critical Race Theory
intersectionality
queer theory
critical disability research
phenomenology
Indigenous methodologies
postcolonial and decolonized knowing
poststructural engagements
diffraction and intra-action
digital methodologies
autoethnography
visual methodologies
thematic analysis
performance
art as research
critical participatory action research
multivocality
collaborative inquiry
………..and the politics of evidence.

Sessions will also discuss:

threats to shared governance
attacks on freedom of speech
public policy discourse
and research as resistance

Scholars come to the Congress to resist, to celebrate community, to experiment with traditional and new methodologies, with new technologies of representation.

Together we seek to develop guidelines and exemplars concerning advocacy, inquiry and social justice concerns. We share a commitment to change the world, to engage in ethical work that makes a positive difference.

As critical scholars, our task is to bring the past and the future into the present, allowing us to engage realistic utopian pedagogies of hope.

ICQI provides leadership to demonstrate the promise of qualitative inquiry as a form of democratic practice, to show how qualitative inquiry can be used to directly engage pressing social issues at the level of local, state, national and global communities.

The Congress sponsors the journal International Review of Qualitative Research (IRQR), three book series, and occasional publications based upon the more than 1,000 papers given at the conference each year. It the largest annual gathering of qualitative scholars in the world.

09/04/202111/06/2021

Bikes and Sport-for-development (S4D)

Bikes and Sport-for-development. Bicycles Create Change.com. 9th April 2021.

My PhD looks at how bicycles feature in West African girls’ access to secondary education.

This means I read widely about gender, geography, aid and development, education, mobility and innovative research methods.

I’ve been reviewing what has been done so far to help girls get to and from schools on bikes – and this has to lead me to Sport-for-development literature. Which I love!

The field of sport-for-development (S4D) has received significant attention in the last 10 years, legitimizing it as a recognized and critical new genre of scholarship and praxis. The focus of S4D is to engage disadvantaged people and communities in physical activity projects with an overarching aim of achieving various social, cultural, physical, economic, or health outcomes.

Where at the beginning of the 21st century it was difficult to find projects that use sport or physical activity as a specific vehicle for positive change, the number of S4D initiatives that aim to make a difference has grown substantially. One explanation for this escalation is the strong political support for a movement that combines sports associations, aid agencies, development bodies, sponsoring organisations, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs)under a single umbrella.

An example of this is my project, which showcases how for the last decade, the collaboration of NGO Village Bicycle Project (my research partner organization) with Stylish Karim Kamara has helped progress local individuals, schools, community groups and education/health organisations by supplying bicycles and bike riding services.

A lovely moment of (research) providence

Often in research, what is being worked on is removed and abstracted from the goings-on in ‘the real-world’.

But not for me this week! This week I had a lovely moment of research providence!

I am currently reading a book on S4D (see image above) which details programs like Football for Peace in the Middle East, Ganar and Deportes para la Vida in the Caribbean, Soldados Nunca Mais which rehabilitates and retrains Brasilian child soldiers using sport, Pacifica Wokabot Jalens (team-based step challenges) programs and other EduSport initiatives.

And it just so happened that my reading of this book coincided with the UN International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP 2021) which was on the 6th of April.

So this made what I am working on even more real and meaningful.

What is the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace?

Here are some great IDSDP resources and information.

Here’s some background from the UN explaining IDSDP 2021.

In recognition of the positive contribution that sport can have on the realization of sustainable development and on the advancement of human rights, 6 April was proclaimed the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP) by the UN General Assembly in its resolution 67/296 in 2013.

Theme: International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP) 2021

The International Day of Sport for Development and Peace 2021 there is an opportunity to recognize the role that sport plays in communities, in individuals’ lives, in building resilience and in the recovery from the pandemic through online and social media activity in the lead up to and on the Day.

The Department of Global Communications, in collaboration with DESA, WHO and the co-chairs of the Group of Friends of Sport for Sustainable Development in New York – Qatar and Monaco – have developed social media and online messaging around the theme of recovery from the pandemic, the importance of equity in that recovery, and what is necessary to build back better for a more resilient and equitable world.

Sport can cross boundaries, defy stereotypes, improve our physical and emotional health, and inspire hope across nations, but we will only be able to get back to this, if we recover better and help end the pandemic by helping ensure everyone is protected from COVID-19 Using the hashtags #SportDay and #OnlyTogether, interested UN entities and external organizations will be able to tailor the theme to closely fit their own specific mandates and activities to demonstrate how sport and physical activity can help build back better and stronger as society begins to reopen and recover, once the pandemic ends.

Sporting analogies, such as “achieving success through teamwork,” and “using a level playing field” can also be incorporated to deliver the important equity and resilience messaging, and sports personalities and organizations can help promote. Teamwork is essential to building back better.

So, let’s help end the pandemic by ensuring everyone is protected from COVID-19. Let’s level the playing field and recover better. #OnlyTogether will we play again.

Objectives

The 2021 International Day of Sport for Development and Peace aims to:

– Reaffirm the place of sport in the recovery from the pandemic and beyond
– Foster equity, solidarity, community and team spirit in response to the pandemic
– Encourage healthy habits through physical activity and building emotional wellbeing
– and inspire hope through sporting analogies.

These are the hashtags for the International Day of Sport this year: #SportDay #OnlyTogether

21/10/202001/12/2020

Grace Foundation Gambia

Recently, Nelson Aigbe, (the Founder/Director of Grace Foundation, Gambia) got in contact with me. He had seen news of my research in Sierra Leone and he reached out to share the important work he is doing feeding and educating street kids. I wanted to do a post for Grace Foundation to support their incredible work, spread the work and give readers the opportunity to donate and help Grace Foundation continue their work. In a time when many of us are house-bound and the world seems to have shrunk, it is even more important to keep our eyes and hearts open to needs of others. This post is written by Nelson and outlines what Grace Foundation is and how they help local street kids. Please give generously. Thanks, NG.

Grace Foundation Gambia

Grace Foundation is a registered nonprofit organization in the Gambia that provides education and food for 400 street kids.. Many Gambian children turn up at schools daily on hungry stomach and return home hungry.

Their families are living in extreme poverty and do not have enough income to provide the barest minimum of food.

As a result of the poverty faced daily by these children, many are withdrawn from schools and are forced to engage in street trading in order to get food for their families at home, thus exposing these mainly children girl to sex abuse, child trafficking and child labour.

Grace Foundation provides free school meals and education to 400 kids, most of them are girl s as a way to help stop sex abuse, encourage school attendance and stop hunger at schools.

A message from the Founder/Director

I write to you on behalf of Grace Foundation Gambia.

Grace Foundation provides free school meals and education to mainly girl street children sent to trade in the streets in order to help feed at home thus exposing these mainly girl street children to sex abuse, child trafficking and child labour.

Since the closure of schools these children can no longer assess the free school meals programme we provide daily, and most of these children are back in the streets, trading and hawking in order to be fed at home.

This street trading has once again exposed these mainly girl children to sex abuse, child trafficking and labour.

I pray for your attention in helping me with the continuation of the feeding and probably education of these very vulnerable poor Children.

My organization is a small one that depends on the magnanimous donations of good people like you to help keep these children safe from the streets.

Please feel free to ask any questions that may be useful to you.

Kind regards,

Nelson Aigbe – Founder/Director, Grace Foundation, The Gambia

You can make a difference

Your contributions can help educate a child because your
$15 will buy stationery for a child
$25 will provide school bag for a child

$50 will provide Uniforms
$100 will provide lunch for 2000 pupils

$150 will provide seedlings for school gardens
$700 will buy 2000 acres of land

Grace Foundation Newsletter Download

Support Grace Foundation

To support kindly send donations to: Trust Bank Limited (Gambia)
Account Name: Grace Foundation (GF) Account Number: 110-243272-01
Swift Code: TBLTGMGM

For further inquiries please contact: gracefoundation.gm@gmail.com

Telephone: (00220) 994 88 46 998 18 60

LinkedIn: Grace Foundation GF Gambia

Facebook: https://fb.me/GraceFoundation1968

Twitter: @GraceFoundatio7

All images courtesy of Grace Foundation Gambia.

17/09/202021/11/2020

Korean teacher uses bike to teach classes for students missing out on online COVID lessons

Teachers who use bikes to make education and learning more equitable is always inspiring. Previously, I posted on Afghani teacher Saber Hosseini who rides his bicycle laden with books out to rural villages in the mountains so locals there who have no access to books can learn to read and have an opportunity to read. The story is about Korean teacher Rudra Rana who rides his bike out to teach kids who do not have access to online classes during COVID lockdown. Although the bike in this story is motorized, given the rough terrain, I’m counting Rudra’s story as an opportunity for all riders and bike types (motorized and pedal) to be better utilized in educational access. This story comes via Asian News International (posted by Amrita Kohli). Enjoy! NG.

Rudra Rana is a government school teacher in Chhattisgarh’s Korea district. He travels on his bike with a blackboard strapped to his back to educate children in ‘mohalla’ classes amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

While speaking to ANI, Rana said that since many students did not have access to online education and all schools remained closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, he thought of educating them by bringing ‘school at their doorstep’.

“Very few students were able to join the online classes, so we started mohalla classes. So I thought of this method. This also ensures the safety of both teachers and students as there is no contact. As students can’t go to schools, I’m bringing education to their doorstep,” said Rana.

“I have also kept a blackboard, books and placards with me. I ring the bell and then students come, just like normal school routine, then students perform their prayers and we start with the classes as per syllabus,” he added.

Rana further said, “I travel from one region to another, gather students and educate them about coronavirus and their subjects. Even students are coming forward and showing interest while the locals are appreciating the initiative.”

“The umbrella on my bike represents a new way of educating students. It also protects me from heat and rain,” he added.

Speaking about the importance of these classes during the pandemic, Shilp, a student said: “We get to learn a lot from these classes. Sir comes here daily and teach us and also answer our doubts. We are enjoying this method of teaching.”

“Sir teaches us different concepts and later we study them on our own. We miss school but this concept is also nice as it feels just like we’re at school,” said Suraj, another student.

Earlier, a government school teacher Ashok Lodhi pleased many with his efforts of educating students by travelling on his bike with an LED TV to educate children via cartoons and music. He had also garnered heaps of praises for his unique initiative and was nicknamed ‘Cinema Wale Babu’ by the local residents of the Korea district.

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, the Chhattisgarh government had earlier launched an online portal, ‘Padhai Tuhar Duar’, that provided education to students stuck at their homes amid the lockdown.

The state government took the scheme further in August and introduced ‘Padhai Tuhar Para’, which aims to teach children with the help of community in their localities and villages.

05/08/202020/10/2020

Nourishing Young Minds and Bodies in Lunsar

This post is a shout out to the community I did my bike PhD fieldwork with – and a call to action to help them when they need it most.

Regular readers of this blog know that earlier this year I went to Sierra Leone, West African to do my fieldwork. My research partners with bicycle NGO Village Bicycle Project and I worked alongside Karim ‘Stylish’ Kamara (VBP Country Manager).

I returned a week before COVID lock down and quarantine was made mandatory (phew!!). Since then I have kept in close contact with Stylish and many of the amazing people I met in Lunsar.

Since my return, I have been worried about Stylish and my Lunsar friends – dreading the arrival of August because of that is when the seasonal torrential rains come.

As well as being an incredible bicycle advocate and business man, Stylish is also very active supporting his community in a number of roles and ventures. Some of these ventures are bicycle-related, others are not.

Stylish’s VBP bike shop supplies COVID precautions for all riders, customers, visitors and staff.

This post looks at one of Stylish’s most significant community program that occurs outside of his role as ‘The bike king of Sierra Leone’ – yet one that is arguably just as important – his annual August Nourishing Young Minds and Bodies in Lunsar.

August is the most difficult month in Sierra Leone

The rainy season in Sierra Leone runs June – September. August is always the most difficult month. Every August, there are devastating rains, storms, flooding and landslides and thousands of the most vulnerable lose their homes, crops, livelihoods and sometimes lives. Schools, markets and health services shut down and people are forced to stay home because it is too dangerous – people and children get swept away and killed.

Last year, there was a particularly devastating mudslide in Freetown that killed many living in shanty towns and locals called it ‘the day the mountain moved’. These communities are still rebuilding even now as the rains come. The video below showing the build-up last year gives a sense of the gravity of the situation.

August rains often constrain access to essential services due to flooded streets and bridges, debris blocking roads and poor communication networks. A lack of electricity means the full impact on the most vulnerable families is not known until much later. This year preparations are more acute given additional COVID lockdown.

Every August many schools in Lunsar shut down. This means kids are missing out on continuing their education and often they fall behind.

In an account on Study, Read , Write, but most importantly: Listen, traveller Zoe details her experience being in the rainy season in Sierra Leone. Her experience highlights the impact torrential rains have on locals and slum communities, especially in regards to sewage, electricity and health via spikes in malaria and other diarrhoeal and vector borne diseases.

Nourishing Young Minds and Bodies in Lunsar

Stylish with participants of the 2019 Nourishing Young Minds and Bodies.

Last August, Hellen Gelbrand set up a Go Fund Me: Nourishing Young Minds and Bodies to help Stylish run a month-long feeding and schooling program for 100 local kids. This meant kids got a meal for lunch (for most it was their only meal of the day) and were able to continue their studies.

Hellen writes ‘August is the hardest month in Sierra Leone, well into the rainy season with dwindling food supplies in subsistence farming communities. It’s especially hard on kids. In what has become an annual program, Karim Kamara, a young Sierra Leonean, is planning a month of extra schooling and nutritious meals for 125 students at the King Kama primary school in Lunsar. Five teachers, including head teacher Mr. Alie F. Kamara (no relation to Karim), will be employed to teach the children—many of whom are orphans, and all from poor families where one meal a day is the norm for August.”

The 2020 Nourishing Young Minds and Bodies program starts this week and needs your help to raise $3, 100 to make this program happen.

Donate here

This program is a remarkable example of a grassroots community-driven initiative made possible by Stylish – a person whose first love is bicycles, but who saw a need and took action to make positive change for those who need it the most in his community.

Husband and I have supported this program and we are rallying others to do the same.

Please give generously and support Stylish and the children of Lunsar.

2020 Nourishing Young Minds and Bodies students.

01/04/202023/12/2021

New Materialism SIG: My bicycles-for-education PhD fieldwork presentation

Note: the first 2020 NM SIG gathering was held before COVID-19 social distancing and workplace lockdown came into effect – hence us meeting in person.

As many of you know, I am the co-convenor of a New Materialism Special Interest Group (SIG) at Griffith’s Institute for Educational Research (GIER). Each month a group of HDR candidates, Early Career Researchers and Academics meet to explore, discuss, experiment and share complex and emerging post-qualitative ideas, methods and approaches.

New Materialism is the framing I am using for my African girls’ bicycles-for-education PhD Project. To kick off the first SIG for 2020, I presented my African fieldwork.

I’ve had a few people contact me asking how the trip went. Below is a snapshot of my bicycle PhD project, the context and what I did during my PhD fieldwork in Lunsar, Sierra Leone.

Here’s some highlights of my fieldwork presentation (more details in slides below).

Opening: An Acknowledgement of Country, Diversity and Inclusion and that Matter Matters and thanks to the local Lunsar chiefs and the amazing people who have been instrumental in helping make this project happen.
Researcher positionality: Who am I and how did I come to this project
Research context background : 5 intersections of Girls unfreedoms
Girls Ed Lit Review: Current directions in NGO Literature on the topic
Establish Space: Key Project that opens up my research space – completed in 2010
Confirm & Extend: Follow up – a specific project on girls bicycle projects in Lunsar – completed 2016
Established gap leads into my research questions (no slide for this = top secret!)
My Study Design: Aims, Methodology and theoretical framing (NM)
Fieldwork details: Tech Matters and other research developments/considerations
Country context: Background to Sierra Leone (very general history & context)
Site Location: Background and context about Lunsar (my fieldwork location)
Research partnership case study: Intro to Village Bicycle Project (organization) Stylish (host/research participant/all-round incredible man!)
Fieldwork ‘Data’: list of all the research data/activities achieved (so busy!) and other events, opportunities and visits – so busy!
Present some ‘Data‘: I showed some fieldwork bike ride footage for discussion (no slide – top secret)
The return: Now I have returned, I outlined my next steps and questioned how/what to do to start ‘data analysis’
Q&A: Open discussion and suggestions on entry points for data analysis using NM approaches.

Aside from being able to share my fieldwork experiences with others, it was also great to get stuck into some rigorous academic discussions and come away with a number of productive and tangible ideas to apply for data analysis.

Most satisfying of all though, was seeing how interested people are in Sierra Leone and having the opportunity to promote and celebrate the beautiful people, places and experiences I had there.

26/03/202029/05/2020

Pedal4PNG Bike Ride

Pedal4PNG. Bicycles Create Change.com 26th March 2020.

While looking at some pacific community bike projects, I came across the Pedal4PNG Bike Ride.

It sparked my interest as it was relatively small and specific and offered a unique riding opportunity through Papua New Guinea. It also provides some ideas for other organisations (like Village Bicycle Project in Lunsar, Sierra Leone who I have just returned home from) might consider as a way to increase exposure, contacts and fundraising.

Pedal4PNG Bike Ride

The Pedal4PNG Bike Ride was a 6-day event held in 2018 and run by Australian Doctors International (ADI) to raise funds for PNG‘s Healthy Mums and Healthy Babies programs.

ADI provide support in PNG which is only five km north of Queensland. But unlike Aussie kids, 6% of Papuan children won’t live to reach the age of five. ADI explain this in simple terms: for every soccer team of kids, that’s one not making it as far as kindy age.

Children die in PNG every day from preventable diseases such as diarrhoea, measles and pneumonia. Meanwhile, their mothers face a mortality rate of 250 mums per 100,000 live births, with under 50% of births medically supervised.

Proceeds of the ADI Pedal4PNG Bike Ride went to supporting the critical work Australian Doctors International carries out in PNG to provide better health outcomes for young children and mums.

Currently, ADI is working on the frontline with local authorities on a COVID-19 PNG taskforce.

ADI Integrated Health Patrols

Australian Doctors International has a unique model: conducting monthly patrols to rural and remote areas, where healthcare is generally inaccessible.

This is locally sustainable health care in action – prevention and treatment in the isolated communities where over 85% of the PNG population lives.

ADI teams provide a mix of skills and staff to deliver hands-on health care and save lives.

ADI doctors deliver clinical capacity building for front line PNG health workers to improve health service delivery in the areas of child and maternal health, malaria, TB and lifestyle diseases.

The Bike Trip

This bike trip was from Namatanai (in the north) down to Kavieng (in the South) covering a total of 260kms on roads throughout the New Ireland Province.

The trip was advertised as a ‘bike adventure’ and given the tropical heat (30C +) and physical challenge of riding through some varied terrain including some hills and it was best the riders knew about the conditions. But the riding was mostly on sealed roads, so the actual surface was not that difficult. There were a couple of longer days (up to 100 km), so doing some training was advised.

As with any international in-country charity bike ride, built into the itinerary was time for cultural events, meeting locals, time to explore local surrounds, have R&R and opportunities to surf, relax and visit some handi/craftsmiths.

This ride had a few other perks I hadn’t seen before, particular to only PNG of course, which was the option to go and watch chocolate making at Rubios as well as do some local scuba diving and fishing and explore the WWII sites and history along the island.

What I appreciated is that the trip number was capped at ten which is a good number for an adventure ride – enough to have some diversity in personalities, but not too much that the group is so large that it takes hours to get ready or do anything.

Trip Details

Sunday 13 May: arrive in Kavieng, welcome dinner and overnight at Nusa Island Retreat
Monday 14 May: transit to Namatanai, with visits to several different health clinics, afternoon visit to hospitals, unpacking of bikes and overnight at Namatanai Lodge
Tuesday 15 May: ride to Rubio’s (40km)
Wednesday 16 May: plantation tour, chocolate making, ride 110km to Fissoa
Thursday 17 May: 100km ride into Kavieng, visit giant eels, final dinner Nusa Island Retreat
Friday 18 May: depart (although we recommend staying the weekend for some diving!)

Along the way, riders stopped to visit healthcare clinics and hospitals that were supported by ADI, so they got to see first-hand some of the health issues and programs that were underway to meet the needs of locals.

Overall is looks like a great adventure ride to do. What appeals to me most is the small group number and how riders can go and visit clinics to better appreciate local health issues. ADI noted in their Annual Report 2018 that the ride had been a success.

It might take a lot of work to organise and I know these rides are not for everyone, but it is good to some diversity in charity bike ride offerings beyond the (dare I say ‘stale’) mass rides for cancer research events.

Best of luck ADI!

All images courtesy of ADI.

16/03/202029/05/2020

Free Cycling Lessons Empower Immigrants in Finland

I always find it inspiring to see governments, councils and local community groups welcoming new arrivals and supporting them to access bicycles. Many locals take bike riding for granted and we often forget how empowering and significant riding a bicycle can be – especially for refugees. Previously on this blog, I’ve shared stories about how one former refugee’s life was transformed when a kindly local gave her a bike and then more widely, some considerations and biking activities held on World Refugee Day.

Bicycles transcend language, culture and personalities. Bikes are the perfect entry point for refugees to explore a new community in a cheap and familiar way that everyone understands.

For this post, we travel to Finland to look at the Immigrants on Bikes Project. This article is written by Federico Ferrara, the Project Manager for this initiative.

In February 2018, the Finnish Cyclist’s Federation (Pyöräliitto) started the Immigrants on Bike Project. It is funded by Finland’s state lottery and gambling monopoly for the next three years. The project aims to teach immigrants to cycle, which also promotes a green lifestyle change. The new cyclists benefit from increased mental and physical strength.

In the first 20 months of the project, the Finnish Cyclists’ Federation organized courses for beginner riders, basic cyclists and maintenance. On top of that, it offered short bike tours. So far, the initiative counted 65 courses, trained 330 new cyclists and 40 new cycling instructors. Twelve Finnish cities participate in the project.

In the beginner courses, participants learn to balance on a bicycle, to pedal, to use the brakes as well as the basics of controlling a bicycle. One group consists of four to five coaches and ten participants. Around 90% of the participants learned how to ride a bike successfully. Motivated by this great experience, they are eager to learn more. And the courses are equally enjoyable for coaches!

It’s wonderful to see such big changes! At first, the participants arrive stressed, insecure and afraid of riding a bike. But three hours after, they are already biking with a big wide smile and look happy. It’s incredible to see their transformation as they become empowered!” stated one coach.

The Finnish Cyclists’ Federation relies on a clear teaching methodology, proper equipment (smaller size bicycles, folding pedals etc.), motivation and well-trained coaches in a calm but easily accessible environment. It is important to create a safe space where new cyclists can overcome their fears in their own time.

Additionally, cooperation with NGOs and integration actors are crucial to reach people in need. The NGOs work with groups of people that have already spent time together. Therefore, they can come to the lessons together, which lowers the number of absences and creates a great group dynamic. This accelerates the learning process as trust has already been established beforehand. It also helps to overcome language and cultural barriers very easily found in groups that are so diverse.

Biking can have a positive influence on independence, empowerment, equality, mobility as well as physical and mental health. It’s something Europeans take mostly for granted, but the same doesn’t go for immigrants not used to good city infrastructure.

This project taught me that knowing how to ride a bicycle can be of great importance for immigrants that didn’t learnt it in their childhood and can positively influence their integration process. Especially if the society that welcomes them also values cycling.

This article was first published in entirety by the European Cyclists Federation on 23 Oct 2019.